Gainesville woman loses home to Fay

Sunday

Aug 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMSep 1, 2008 at 12:13 AM

Some types of trees are more likely to give way during heavy rains.

By LISE FISHERSun staff writer

While many Gainesville area residents wrote off Tropical Storm Fay as a nuisance, Leona Anglin found herself without a home.Fay dumped rain and brought down trees in Alachua County.For Anglin, a nurse at the North Florida Regional Medical Center, that meant a tree on top of her home of 30 years at 1717 NW 12th St.The difference between Anglin’s home and others was the proximity and type of tree near the house.A laurel oak fell on the building, cutting through the deck and into Anglin’s bedroom and living room on Aug. 21.“It covered my entire house. It was hidden from the limbs, and the trunk of the tree was in the living room and the branches were sticking through into my bedroom,” said Anglin.“The damage to the house will be months and months to repair,” she said.Laurel oaks are considered less windresistant, according to information from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.This makes the trees more prone to failure during hurricanes.Other trees listed as having problems during high winds are turkey oaks, Chinese tallows and red maples.One report about laurel oaks said the tree has shallow roots and a tap root that can rot away.This leaves it supported by peripheral roots that can’t hold the tree up in ground soaked by hours of rain.Workers from Gaston’s Tree Service who came to remove the tree told Anglin the problem was called “roll over” and told her they had seen it before with this type of tree, she said.Although Anglin’s home will require months of repair and she lost many items inside, she said she was grateful for all the support she received from neighbors, the tree service company, her insurance agent Rick Scarborough and Kevin Riordan, who heard about the damage to her home from Scarborough and quickly set her up at a condo at Eagle’s Landing — where he is the broker/owner — until her home could be fixed.Anglin also said she was grateful for something that usually irritates peoples — a phone call from a solicitor that came just at the right time the night of the storm.“I was in the living room, but I got up to answer a soliciting phone call,” Anglin said.Her German Shepherd followed her out of the room.Soon after, the tree collapsed into the room where she and the dog had been just before.